Mar. 22nd, 2016

Mar. 22nd, 2016

So were all the choices between playing it safe and mum and a message sent running a certain amount of risk?

Obviously every episode of anything is all about choices. I think here the point was that it was always unclear ahead of time which was correct?

Main ones:

1. Denise's to go out herself so she won't be forever stuck as an insider/Alexandrian. She makes two sub-decisions ratifying this, one she can't sustain (the child's room) then a ridiculously risky one to make up for it. Outcome: well, obvious, but also not - the risks she thought she was taking may have paid off for her, but those she inadvertently also ran by exposing herself didn't.

2. Eugene dismissing whatshisname; he hadn't necessarily calculated the risk of this, but does accept that risk by not apologizing and running after him. Outcome: similarly bad but good, as he gets his chance to prove his bravery and "skillset" but also nearly dies and, worse, gets others killed. And getting captured suggests he's not as ready for going it alone as he thinks he is.

3. Daryl and the tracks. He's wary of traps and that breaks the group up and consumes time. It resonates with his earlier decision to not kill the guy who stole his bike that he talks about with Carol; she walks away from him when he suggests he wouldn't spare him now, not liking that he's changing (though also, we find out, inspired by the fact that he has). He changes his mind on the way back, partly to get back to being who he'd been - and, relatedly, to let Denise feel she truly is safe. Outcome: not good, and all because of that earlier choice - but of course the true choice has been made by "D" (Daryl, Denise, Dennis ... ), or by whoever burned his face and compelled him to go destroy Alexandria.

4. Carol's to leave rather than kill. We don't yet know this outcome.

5. Morgan's to go after Carol, which I assume we're watching on his face after he observes the full ashtray and strongly jostled swing, which indicate she's made a sudden, emotional departure. Outcome unknown.

More minor or uncertain:

A. Morgan makes a jail cell, despite his master's disbelief in them, in order to give Rick choices other than executing prisoners. Outcome unknown. Any risk to this choice? Rick's irritation? Or is the significance how prison removes choice. Is Morgan making his Wolf mistake again (not trusting others to choose) on Rick's behalf, as it were? Or in some sense taking Rick's choice to kill away?

B. Denise feels safer with Daryl than with Rosita, so following him wasn't really s choice.

D. His decision to leave Eugene so as to teach him a lesson (though he's nearby and follows him once captured, it looked like). Outcome: bad since Eugene's put at risk for little reason and injured, good since Eugene is enabled to prove something by it, maybe good since it resolves him to complete his Sasha decision, maybe good since it curbs Eugene's hubris.

The Dennis vs Denise path: angry bravery vs calm cowardice? Their parents were alcoholics, so he confronts, she soothes? She gets worked up after her brave act, which maybe helps by drawing the attention that gets her killed (by mistake - D misses Daryl).

So all could have neglected to take the stands they did, which changed (clarified?) who they were as people - but only by putting self and others at risk. And it's not clear if changing yourself even works, as compared to being changed. Maybe the point is that making the effort ends up clarifying whether you've already been changed?

Whatshisname falls back into the role of protector, Rosita into working with him, Daryl into saving rather than killing preemptively (staying with Eugene is no choice at all). Carol perhaps changes, but only at the cost of total rupture. Denise may have changed, may have not. Character vs fate remains unsolved.

The tree across the path: what happens as a result of your choice isn't always the result of your choice, as it were, rather than just some random hazard along the way picked.

It's not clear if Morgan's changed either - his choice to stay in the cell may be finally the same as putting others in one.

And Rick's perhaps made a sheriff again, rather than warlord, by the cell.

Other people try to keep us how they knew us, undoing many of our choices? Rosita and Daryl try to scoff Denise into cowardice again - hence her anger - just as whatshisname does with Eugene, and Denise and Carol similarly pressure Daryl to stay as what he symbolizes for them. Similarly Morgan with Rick. So Carol's trying to leave her place in an ecosystem, pretty much. The cinder blocks in the wall I guess symbolize that sort of constraint? Everyone doing their same job, the entirely repeated cuts at the beginning suggest. But the jobs are about readiness - guarding, stocking. (The priest subtly indicates the possibility of change in a new environment, I guess? D the dark version of that - he's now a leader in the ranks he'd tried to flee from.) Morgan's exercises prepare him too, of course, but perhaps less mechanistically? You do the exact same exercises daily to be free from them in some sense, like with meditating - or anyway maybe the qualified freedom of knowing you're contingent? Which lets him see Carol's broken ranks - a block is missing.

Wasn't paying much attention to Denise's last words because she was being kind of tiresome - deliberate on the writers' part, I imagine. I should go back and see what they were.

Her decision to go Dennis may be picked up by Daryl along with the name-thing, since he felt they'd had the same brother and of course has fought the impulse to emulate his brother at various earlier points. His brother would have killed D.

Did knowledge of the true way die with Denise, or did she not have it either? Killing a zombie over a drink suggests someone not quite where (eg) Tyrese was at the end of The Grove. Morgan is very close, though. Building a prison isn't necessarily condemnable - you could say he's backed down from speaking his full mind to Rick, but equally could say he's leaving Rick a stepping stone to follow him back to the right ethical standpoint if Rick chooses.

Carol's choice presumably isn't one because it takes her away from where she'd be choosing - if you want to kill then don't kill, rather than putting yourself where it will never come up.

Accept that all life (ALL) is precious, accept that all choosers must choose for themselves, accept that you must stand ready to try to protect any and everyone in danger, accept that this may occasionally require imprisoning and/or killing, accept that when this need is not clear such measures must be avoided/undone, accept that you must make these positions and the reasons for them known in clear language but must not hector, accept that no one should be given up on (including yourself) since where there's life there's hope, accept that modelling your beliefs by acting on them will change others more than your words or acts themselves are likely to. Morgan has almost all of it down, but it's not clear, post-Wolf incident, if he gets it that he must sometimes kill ... or quite gets it that absolutely everyone can change, thus should be allowed free choice. We'll see...

Do the tracks signify predictability - going with one's true character? They sort of go for Daryl when he capitulates. For others? Denise leaves the track in the car scene - though is back on it when she dies. Her position was emphasized ... was she right at the edge of the inside portion, making it unclear if she was about to get free?

Does the stick shift vs automatic bit have anything to do with anything? A small menu of options vs none? How difficult it can be to learn what your options are when others want you to stick to what you know? Daryl is supposed to know all manly things, but does not know how to "shift gears," change? Or rather does not realize you need to let up a bit to do so? Less is more when trying to change?

Kid's doubtless important too but I didn't let myself focus on that. What was with the shoe? The zombie was chained up by its parent, keeping it alive to no end? "Hushing" not stopping one's desires but merely ignoring them?

Zombies in a choice vs fate episode played a surprisingly small role otherwise, so there must be something relevant here. With the helmet zombie too - just how mischance and friends fail to let us see whether we can improve ourselves by taking risks?

Suggesting he'll abandon them if they back away from this standard at some point? Did Rick lose his favour with the prisoner incident? The prisoner (Primo?) was vaguely Bob 2-like, what with the baldness, and I assume the two murders are intended to rhyme on some level. Maybe just by showing Rick going out of two slightly distinct sets of bounds? "You are nothing" vs "you are less than I"?